


i'm not unlike you, i just dislike you

by SyntheticRevenge



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Depression, M/M, Noct and Iggy are a manipulative shit-team, brotherhood era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-20 00:03:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11324493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyntheticRevenge/pseuds/SyntheticRevenge
Summary: It was a good arrangement. Noct never had to try hard, or really at all, at anything, and Ignis got to reap the benefits of having appeared to raise the prince well. Neither of them wanted this to end prematurely (not because they cared about each other, naturally, why would you even suggest that) and they would take any threats of it ending very seriously.(AU where Ignis is using his position to climb in the Lucian government and Noct is just very depressed)





	1. Chapter 1

Noct got the math test back at the beginning of class. He wasn’t expecting much from it. Graphing was _hard_ , and it would’ve been hard even if he’d studied for it.

He wasn’t expecting it to be _this_ bad, though. He blinked at the paper a few times before indiscreetly pulling his phone out, putting it flat on his desk, and texting Ignis an ‘SOS’.

He waited impatiently for a response, tapping his fingers on the desk and half-listening to the teacher go over a problem most of the class missed. It was only about a minute before Ignis sent him the typical questionnaire that he usually replied to ‘SOS’ with. Noct responded and leaned on his desk, waiting. Ignis had recently started using emojis, at Gladio’s insistence, but Noct wasn’t sure he fully understood them, as evidenced by the mouthless emoji he got in response, which was closely followed by ‘meet me at your locker after school’.

Noct sighed, and opened King’s Knight, ignoring the derisive looks he was getting from all sides.

* * *

When Noct got to his locker, Ignis was already there, leaning against it, dressed like he just walked out of Insomnia Fashion Week.

“Unnecessary,” Noct said, fumbling with his lock, not quite remembering if the number in his head was the combination to the safe in his closet that he theoretically had money in or his locker.

“It’s 32-2-13,” Ignis said, sighing, “and I didn’t dress up for _you_ , believe me.”

It was 32-2-13. Noct shoved his textbooks in his locker and slammed the door. “What for, then?”

“Sitting in on a royal meeting,” Ignis said, and Noct watched as he _almost_ smiled.

“Exciting,” Noct said. “Are you gonna go fix my grade?”

Ignis sighed. “You’re coming.”

“ _No_ ,” Noct said.

“Yes.”

“What routine are you gonna use this time?”

Ignis sighed for a third time, almost a record for a conversation this short. “I was thinking Old Faithful. ‘He’s a devoted student, Ms…’”

“Mastro,” Noct supplied.

“He’s a devoted student, Ms. Mastro, he really is. He just struggles so much. You know what happened. It haunts him every night,” Ignis said, over-acting it.

“Maybe throw in the depression diagnosis,” Noct said, yawning.

“Good call,” Ignis said. “Who knows, maybe one day you’ll be able to do this for yourself.”

“If you’re going that route, I’m not going in. Then you can shunt in my anxiety. Say ‘he wanted to come in himself, but he was so scared to face your…disappointment in him’,” Noct said, and shrugged.

“Another good call,” Ignis said. “If you put this much effort into math—“

“Then what would you have to do on a daily basis?”

“Fair enough,” Ignis said. “Wait here.”

Noct sank to the ground under his locker and snapchatted Prompto a picture of Ignis walking away captioned ‘having a fixer is great sometimes’, and got a pouting dog-filtered selfie in response. They went back and forth for precisely seven minutes, when Ignis came back and offered him a hand. Noct took it, and Ignis pulled him to his feet.

“I got it amended to a B-,” Ignis said.

“That’s low,” Noct said.

“ _No_ , your original 35% was _low_. This is more than you deserve,” Ignis said, leading Noct down the stairs and out of the building.

“Math is hard.”

“So is _life_ , Noct,” Ignis said.

“You could just stop,” Noct said, shrugging as he slid into the passenger seat of Ignis’s car.

“Stop what? Fixing your grades?”

“Yeah.”

“Then your father would hear that you were a terrible student, and I’d be fired for not motivating you better,” Ignis said, backing out of the parking lot. “My reputation destroyed. If I can’t handle you, how am I going to be able to handle any part of a kingdom?”

“You wouldn’t have to deal with me,” Noct said.

“Tempting as that is, no. And you wouldn’t have to deal with me, but rather someone who might actually _care_ about you doing well. Can you imagine? Spending hours on homework every night?”

“No,” Noct said, shaking his head.

“Right,” Ignis said. “So am I taking you home, or am I dropping you with Prompto?”

“Nah. Training today,” Noct said.

“Ah. Yes. Apologies,” Ignis said, turning sharply.

“Can you get me out of it?”

“No,” Ignis said.

“Why not? I’m so tired.”

“I’m sure you are.”

“But you don’t care about me doing well,” Noct said, flatly.

“I don’t. Gladio does,” Ignis said.

“He really does, doesn’t he?” Noct said vacantly, staring out the window as they pulled into the parking lot of the Crownsguard’s gym.

Ignis agreed with a ‘mmm’. “Maybe the Stockholm Syndrome hit him early.”

“Fuck off,” Noct said, getting out of the car but holding the door open.

“Gladly. Should I pick you up when you’re done?”

“Nah, I think Prompto’s meeting me.”

“Very well,” Ignis said, and after a moment’s hesitation, added, “If you’re going to do anything involving alcohol, waffles, bubble solution, or watering cans, make sure to either stay indoors, or at least text me where you are so I know where to divert attention away from.”

“That was _once_ ,” Noct groaned, starting to close the car door.

“But the thought of what would have happened had I failed to distract that photographer haunts me daily,” Ignis said. Noct sighed and slammed the door, slouching and shoving his hands into his pockets as he shouldered the door to the gym open.

Gladio was waiting for him, leaning against a wall, stretching, predictably shirtless. His tattoo was still new enough to be a small shock to Noct every time he saw it.

“Hey,” he said, nodding at Noct and pushing himself off the wall. Noct heard Ignis saying ‘verbose as ever’ in his head and suppressed a smile.

“Hey,” Noct said. “I’m tired.”

“You’re always tired,” Gladio said. “I let you out of last week, don’t even try.”

“Fine,” Noct sighed, taking his jacket off. “Can I at least try more warp stuff today?”

“Thought you were tired,” Gladio said.

 Noct shushed Gladio, before pulling his training sword out of the air and throwing it through Gladio at a dummy behind him. Gladio turned around, smiling.

“Sick,” Gladio said, and put a hand out for Noct to high-five. Noct slapped it weakly, just standing there for a moment in an attempt to clear his vision and not pass out. Warping was hard to do well, and effort wasn’t exactly something Noct was renowned for.

Gladio didn’t let him stand long before swinging his absurdly large sword (in Noct’s head Ignis whispered ‘overcompensation much?’) at Noct.

* * *

 

An hour later, Noct was freshly bruised, drenched in sweat, and ready to curl up and die. The last one was always true, but usually for different reasons. Prompto was sitting on a bench at the edge of the room deeply involved in his phone when Noct and Gladio walked over.

“Hey, buddy!” he said as Noct sat down heavily next to him. “Rough day, huh?”

Noct grunted an affirmation.

“That grade was… _wow_ ,” Prompto said, and then whistled. “Like, I’m terrible, but I’ve never been _that bad_.”

Noct flared his eyes at Prompto, trying to send him a silent but very intense ‘shut up’. He wished the line of Lucis included some telepathy magic.

“What are you talking about?” Gladio asked, smiling. “Noct does great.”

Prompto laughed. “Yeah! Great!” he said, and then winked very conspicuously at Gladio.

Noct sucked air through his teeth.

“What…?” Gladio asked, squinting.

“I mean, 35% is a new low, but it’s not like it’s ever that much better,” Prompto said, shrugging.

“But you—he always has straight As,” Gladio said, looking more confused than the time he accidentally stumbled into the whole drunk waffle scenario.

“Well, yeah,” Prompto said, like this was the most obvious thing in the world, “duh. Iggy’s great at his job.”

Noct hissed a ‘fuck’ and dropped his head into his palms, rocking it from side to side.

“Ignis fixes your grades?” Gladio asked, turning to Noct, tone suddenly a lot more ‘disappointed father’ than ‘boy you’d crack open a cold one with’. “Are you joking?”

“You didn’t…he didn’t know?” Prompto whispers to Noct, who shakes his head.

“What’s the big deal?” Noct asked, voice tired and heavily in the whine spectrum. “It all works out.”

“The point isn’t for you to _look good_ , Noct,” Gladio said, and Noct cursed. He knew this tone. It was time for a long lecture about kingly responsibility. “The point is to learn something! The point is to be the best you can. You’re gonna be _king_ one day. Soon, maybe. Do you think our people deserve a guy who got his advisor—“

“More of a super useful butler, really,” Noct interjected.

“Shut up,” Gladio said. “As I was saying, do you think we deserve a guy who got his…whatever…to fix his grades? Do you think we need a king who can’t do _math_?”

“How often do you think my dad graphs polar coordinates on a daily basis?” Noct asked, crossing his arms.

“It doesn’t matter,” Gladio said. “What matters is that you _give a shit_. And you clearly don’t.”

“It’s not that simple,” Noct sighed.

“Isn’t it?” Gladio shouted, and then took a deep breath. “I have to tell your dad.”

“ _No_ ,” Noct hissed, grabbing Gladio’s wrist as he turned to walk away.

“I should go,” Prompto said, voice very small. His eyes were wide and scared, and his breathing was rapid. Noct knew that look. He was panicking. Conflict never went over well with him.

“Yeah,” Gladio said, barely sparing him a glance. “Sorry.”

“No problem,” Prompto squeaked, and then got up and all but ran out of the gym.

“See you tomorrow,” Noct called after him.

“Why shouldn’t I tell your dad,” Gladio said.

“Just…” Noct said, searching for a reason. This was a WWID (What Would Ignis Do) moment. Ignis would tell Noct that the easiest way to manipulate someone like Gladio was to act like you were taking every word they said as sacred and wise. “You’re right. What matters is that I give a shit. This was…really inspiring, Gladio. I’m gonna change.”

“Like hell you are,” Gladio said. “I’ve known you your whole life. ‘Gladio, I promise I’ll never let Iris slide down the bannister again, I’m gonna be better’.”

“Hey, at least she didn’t break anything,” Noct said.

“I have to tell your dad,” Gladio said. “Okay?”

“Not okay,” Noct said. “At all. He’ll fire Iggy.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing.”

“I thought you _liked_ Iggy.”

“I thought I did too,” Gladio said, and his eyes almost softened.

“Just give me a chance,” Noct said. “Please. This time you really did convince me. Give me two weeks. If I can’t get good grades for that time, you can tell my dad and ruin my life.”

“No,” Gladio said.

Noct sighed, and closed his eyes. He didn’t wanna have to pull out the big guns, but he also really did not want Gladio going to anyone with this. He thought hard for a moment about the day his first cat died, and it was barely enough to get him to start crying.

“Gladio, please,” he said, realizing his tears were a little weak and he needed to step up his game. “Shit. I don’t wanna beg you. Things are so hard for me lately.”

Gladio sighed. This was clearly paining him, and he looked conflicted. “I know,” he said, voice weakening.

“I just always feel so…empty,” Noct said, and suddenly it wasn’t as hard to cry. “Like there’s a hole in my chest. My heart rate gets slower. I can’t breathe, sometimes. I can’t move. There’s so much I have to do and I can’t do any of it. It’s…so hard.” He was openly sobbing at this point, and Gladio had sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around him, squeezing him tight.

“Okay,” Gladio said, voice wavering. “Two weeks.”

“Thank you,” Noct said, wiping his eyes. “Thank you so much.”

“I love you, Noct,” Gladio said. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Noct said. “I love you too.”

He grabbed his jacket, forced the rest of the lump in his throat down, and texted Ignis to pick him up as he walked outside.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's super short, I just wanted to set everything up.

“So Gladio knows now?” Ignis asked, knuckles white on the steering wheel. “Why would you tell him?”

“ _I_ didn’t tell him,” Noct groaned, closing his eyes and leaning against the window.

“Then who—have you been _crying_?”

“Yeah, I’ll—I’ll explain,” Noct said. “Prompto told him. He thought he knew already.”

Ignis sighed heavily. “Why would you tell Prompto to begin with?”

“He’s my only friend,” Noct said flatly, eyes still squeezed shut.

“I’m—alright, fair, I suppose,” Ignis said. “So Gladio’s going to tell your father, and my life is over. Well. I can’t say it’s been fun, but it’s been something, I suppose.”

“No, I negotiated,” Noct said, opening his eyes.

“Let’s hope you negotiate better than you graph,” Ignis said. “What was the deal?”

“He gives me two weeks to get better grades without help.”

“We both know that isn’t going to happen,” Ignis said. “Impressive, though, I suppose. He’s a rather sturdy, moral man. A very decent rock.”

“Yeah, that’s why I cried.”

Ignis’s eyebrows shot up. “ _Very good_.”

“Thought you’d be impressed,” Noct said. “Anyway, we need to handle him.”

“Any propositions?”

“Can we get home first?”

“If we must,” Ignis said, and they lapsed into silence.

* * *

“Do you even know where the hippocampus _is_?” Ignis asked exasperatedly, downing the rest of the glass of wine he’d poured himself immediately upon entering Noct’s apartment.

Noct gestured vaguely at his forehead, and then dropped his arm, sighing. “Okay, not the best plan, I guess.”

“That’s not even a plan, that’s just vaguely strategic assault and battery,” Ignis said.

“Okay, well, what’s your idea then?” Noct asked, dropping into a chair across from Ignis.

“Blackmail,” Ignis said. “The weapon of politicians.”

“You’re not a politician.”

“ _Yet_ ,” Ignis said. “Doesn’t matter. You’ve known Gladio your whole life, is there literally anything scandalous about him?”

Noct thought about it for a moment, closing his eyes and flashing through his childhood. “Not…really, no.”

“Then we have to create something. We _need_ leverage.”

“He’s not a scandalous guy,” Noct said, shrugging.

“You can’t think of anything we could do to defame him?” Ignis asked, not in his usual ‘I’m trying to lead you to the right answer because you’re an idiot’ tone, more in a ‘I’m not used to being this fucking clueless’ tone.

“Nah, I…wait!” Noct said, an idea suddenly dawning on him. “We can set him up with someone! Romantically, I mean. And then get pictures or something and threaten to release them.”

“How is that leverage of any kind?” Ignis asked, side-eyeing the bottle of wine like he desperately wanted to down the whole thing.

“Because Shield isn’t allowed to date anyone!” Noct said, almost beaming for a moment, happy he’d thought of something Ignis hadn’t.

“That’s…” Ignis said, rubbing his face. “You know that isn’t true, right?”

“What? Yeah, it is! That’s why Gladio hasn’t dated anyone.”

“Noct, I’m…sort of speechless,” Ignis said.

“Yeah, it’s a good idea, right?”

“ _No_ ,” Ignis said. “Emphatically not. You know that Clarus is King’s Shield, yes?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“You realize he was married, yes? He has…children…”

“Oh,” Noct said, voice small. “Right.”

“Not to mention he’s dating the king,” Ignis said, leaning back.

“He’s _what_ now?” Noct asked.

“Never mind,” Ignis said, smirking. “Point is, I’m fairly sure Shields have no requirement of celibacy. They’re not _Jedi_ , Noct. But let’s say this idea was viable-- which it isn’t. Who would you even set Gladio up with?”

“Didn’t think that far,” Noct said.

“I’d be willing, if we could find a reason this plan worked,” Ignis said.

“I’m sure you would,” Noct said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Noct said. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Gladio thinks you’re some kind of ice monster now.”

“What, because I fix things for you?” Ignis asked, and then sighed. “Prompto really sunk us, didn’t he?”

“That’s it!” Noct said, eyes widening. “Prompto!”

“What about h—to set up with Gladio?” Ignis asked.  “Do they have any interest in each other?”

“Prompto has a huge crush on him,” Noct said. “I dunno about Gladio, but he’s weak about cute stuff, and Prompto’s…I mean, he’s pretty cute. Plus, then it’s scandalous because Gladio’d be dating a high schooler!”

“Prompto’s 18,” Ignis said. “Nice try.”

“Fuck,” Noct said.

“While I enjoy the idea of throwing Prompto under the love bus, don’t you have qualms about manipulating your best friend like this?” Ignis asked.

“The kid’s fuller of anxiety than I am,” Noct said. “I don’t know how else he’s gonna get a boyfriend.”

 “Fair point, I suppose,” Ignis said. “Still, there’s no reason this would work.”

“Maybe to us there isn’t,” Noct said, as something dawned on him. “You know Gladio and his weird sense of honor. He’ll find a reason why it’s good blackmail.”

“That’s one of the first insightful things you’ve ever said,” Ignis said. “Though I think it’s more his father than his honor.”

“Either way,” Noct said, and shrugged.

“Well, I don’t think we have any better options at the moment,” Ignis said, and sighed. “I suppose we need a name for this mission.”

This was an age old tradition, ever since Noct was little and wouldn’t do any chores unless they had cool secret agent mission names. “Operation Rocky Sunshine,” Noct said.

“That’s bad,” Ignis said.

“Do you have anything better?”

“No,” Ignis said. “Operation Rocky Sunshine is underway.”


	3. Chapter 3

Ignis fell asleep on Noct’s couch in the middle of a nature documentary, and woke Noct up for school the next morning looking pristine as always.

“Did you use my shower?” Noct asked, yawning as he sat up.

“I thought I was having a nightmare,” Ignis said, and at Noct’s half-asleep confused headcock, added “Yes. Unfortunately.”

Noct stuck his tongue out at Ignis and got out of bed. He was in boxers and nothing else, and Ignis immediately looked away.

“We’re leaving in ten minutes, yes?” Ignis said.

Noct grunted as he started searching his floor for his uniform. “Also, you don’t have to look away.”

“What?” Ignis asked, picking at a loose thread on his blazer.

“Is my body really so ugly,” Noct said, sighing at the end and making it clear it was a joke.

“It’s decidedly average,” Ignis said. “Would you like me to watch?” He turned back around and leaned against the bedroom door, eyebrow raised in a perfect skeptical arch as he watched Noct hop around trying to pull his pants up.

“I was joking,” Noct said. “Unless you want to.”

A smirk flashed across Ignis’s face, but he quickly suppressed it. “This is rather circular, isn’t it?”

“But you’re not looking away,” Noct said, waggling his eyebrows as he buttoned his shirt.

“This is a reverse striptease, then, is it?” Ignis asked.

“I don’t know,” Noct said. “I’m tired. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“You’re always tired and you never know what you’re doing,” Ignis said, watching Noct struggle to tie his tie. “Here.”

Ignis walked over to Noct and tied his tie for him.

“Thanks,” Noct said, throwing his jacket on. Some intrusive and irritating part of his brain shouted ‘go for the Prompto ass-slap’, but he shut it down. “Let’s go.”

Ignis nodded and followed Noct out.

* * *

Nothing happened at school, and that nothing stretched out forever. Fog was drowning Noct’s thoughts out, and all that was left was a slow, steady throb of self-hatred squeezing at him. Prompto had to get math help at lunch, so Noct couldn’t even use his sunshine to break the fog.

His heart felt like it was going so slow he didn’t even know if he was alive. Just for something to do, he texted Ignis, though it felt like his hands and brain were far disconnected, and that the former was acting independently of the latter.

_Logistically, what would happen if I died?_ he asked, and seconds later Ignis responded with _No_ and, after a few minutes, _You have therapy after school today now_ and Noct sighed and let his head slam the desk.

* * *

Noct was mostly quiet through therapy and let his doctor talk about how to cope with anxiety attacks and intrusive thoughts. He didn’t pay attention, just played with a hole in his sleeve and thought about what Ignis would say if Noct ever just kissed him. Not that Noct wanted to. It was just something to think about.

* * *

Noct walked to Prompto’s house after he got out. Prompto was always listening to music and never heard the doorbell, so he’d just given Noct a spare key. Noct remembers Prompto pressing the key into his hands with a forced smile and a strained ‘yeah, my parents are chill, they don’t care’.

Noct let himself in and texted Prompto that he was there. Prompto was down in less than a minute, and jumped onto the couch next to Noct, beaming.

“Hey, buddy!” he said, wrapping an arm around Noct’s shoulder. “Good day?”

“Sure,” Noct said. “Good as any.”

“Great,” Prompto said, somehow missing the point. “Uh…I wanted to say sorry about yesterday. I really thought Gladio knew. I hope I didn’t…irreparably fuck anything up.”

“You didn’t,” Noct said. “We got it all straightened out.”

“Oh, good,” Prompto said, sighing in relief. “Sorry for freaking out and leaving like that too, I just…”

“It’s fine,” Noct said. “I get it. It’s good you did leave, actually, because I have news for you.”

“Yeah?”

Noct tried to take a quiet, subtle deep breath. He did feel a little bad about doing this, but why should he? Prompto would get a boyfriend, at least for however long the combination of anxiety and anger issues could last, and Noct would get to keep Iggy and never be forced to try hard at anything. It was really a win-win. He was helping.

“So, Gladio and I ended up talking about his love life,” Noct said.

“He’s dating someone,” Prompto said immediately, face falling.

“No, actually,” Noct said. “The opposite. He’s single, and he was sort of hinting that he thought you were cute.”

“Really?” Prompto asked, eyes wide, infectiously large smile spreading. Noct felt like shit.

“Yeah!” Noct said, trying to muster some enthusiasm.

“What did he say?” Prompto asked, jumping up and sitting crosslegged on the couch facing Noct.

“He was like ‘that kid you hang out with, Prompto, is he a nice guy?’,” Noct said.

“What did you say?” Prompto asked, grabbing Noct’s wrist with both of his hands.

“You need to let me finish,” Noct said. Easier to lie all at once than go in small increments and feel worse every time. “I said yeah, of course you’re nice. Gladio like, nodded in that thoughtful way he has, and then said ‘he’s got all those freckles. I like freckles’. Which, I know it sounds dumb, but it’s…he does like freckles. I can tell you this from 18 years of knowing him. But the point is, he’s clearly thinking about you, and your personality, and your face.”

Noct cursed himself silently. Were he Ignis, he just would’ve delivered some monologue where Gladio was completely in character and saying things that _proved_ he liked Prompto, but he wasn’t Ignis, so completely out of character remarks and overexplanation were all he could provide.

“I dunno, dude, are you _sure_?” Prompto asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” Noct said. “I dunno, I’m tired, but I know Gladio. I’m pretty sure he likes you.”

“ _Like_ like?”

“Yeah,” Noct said. “You should ask him out.”

“I dunno, man,” Prompto said, eyes wide. “What if he says no? I mean, I’m…I’m not…”

“You’re not _what_? You’re attractive, talented, and the most upbeat person I’ve ever met,” Noct said, and this was genuine. “If he doesn’t want to go out with you, he doesn’t deserve you.”

Prompto looked like he was about to cry for a second, but he shook it off. “Okay. Okay. I can do this.”

“Wanna do it now, while you’re still pumped up about it?”

“Yeah,” Prompto said, nodding more and more vigorously. “Yeah, I do.”

Noct smiled. “Okay, let’s go.”

* * *

Noct stood at the entrance of the gym and leaned against a wall, patting Prompto on the shoulder and giving him a small shove towards Gladio. Gladio had his back to them and was beating on a punching back, grunting loudly with each hit.

“He’s so big,” Prompto whispered with wide eyes, looking back at Noct.

“Come on, just go for it,” Noct said, nodding towards Gladio, and Prompto took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and marched towards Gladio like he was going out to face his death.

Noct couldn’t hear what was said, but he watched anyway. Prompto’s body language was more or less terrified, but as time went on he opened up a little, and Gladio looked like he was smiling the whole time. Eventually Prompto handed Gladio his phone and smiled as he watched Gladio type something in.

Noct texted Ignis _stage one of operation rocky sunshine is complete_ , to which Ignis responded _I think we need a new mission name, this is atrocious_.

Prompto more or less skipped back to Noct with an obnoxiously wide smile plastered on his face. It made Noct smile.

“So?” Noct said, draping an arm over Prompto’s shoulder as they walked out together.

“So we’re gonna go to a movie tomorrow night,” Prompto said, blushing, his head down. “Thank you, Noct.”

“Of course,” Noct said, still smiling, and then shook Prompto a little. “You’re gonna have a boyfriend!”

“Well, not necessarily,” Prompto said. “I could fuck up in so many different ways.”

“Yeah, but you’re not gonna,” Noct said. “I believe in you.”

“That makes one of us,” Prompto said, but he was still smiling. “Love you, dude.”

“Yeah, you too,” Noct said.

“See you Monday!”

“We can’t hang out Sunday?”

“Maybe,” Prompto said, shrugging. “I’ll text you!”

Noct gave him a thumbs up and sat on the curb, waiting for Ignis.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, leaving a comment or kudos would mean a lot to me. I'll update as frequently as I can.


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